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All athletes should have the same opportunities
Letters

Dear Editor,

As a member of track and field and cross country at Pitman High School, I’ve witnessed firsthand the discrepancy between funding for different sports. Sports that generate the most revenue for the school, like football, basketball, and volleyball, get the most funding. 

But what about the sports that don’t get spectators? Nearly no one spends a Wednesday afternoon out at the track meet, even though 200+ Pitman students are part of the program. Even fewer people show up for weekend cross country meets, which are usually a long bus ride away and cost a lot to participate in.

Even though we don’t generate much revenue, I believe that our sports should have at least enough budget to buy uniforms, which we almost weren’t able to do last season. Invitational meets are expensive to get into, and with our current budget, we simply don’t have enough to pay for bus fees and entrance fees. As for track, our camera and tracking systems are an expensive necessity that take up a huge part of our budget, leaving room for little else. Athletes have to spend a lot of time fundraising for things as simple as uniforms, and we rely a lot on our sponsors, for whom we are immensely grateful.

So in conclusion, while it makes sense that our more popular sports have a larger budget, I would like people to consider the others, like track, cross country, and tennis, because our athletes are just as hard working as those in the larger programs. We’re not asking for a miracle, just a better allocation of funding so we can have the same opportunities as athletes in football, volleyball, and basketball.

— Kylie Guina